Friday, October 14, 2016

Flat

My mantra has always been that flatness has no positive beauty--it is only an evil absence of the beauty of mountains. But I'll dial back these thoughts a bit after a beautiful drive we took through a bit of the flat midwest at sunset last weekend. You know the rays of light that break through the clouds? Well, we saw about a thousand rays of light breaking through the clouds for miles and miles, spreading from left to right, from close to far away. It was a vast and striking picture of great beauty.

And after that, we had about twenty minutes of sunset--the sun was sinking slowly and the colors were gradually and constantly changing from orange to pink. Against the sun, trees and barns and houses were silhouetted--it looked like pictures I've seen of Africa at sunset. It was incredible--you couldn't take your eyes away or you'd miss part of the grandeur. (I wasn't driving at the time.)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice description! Papa

Anonymous said...

That almost brought tears to my eyes-the beauty of it! AND it was so encouraging because that was exactly what I disliked about it when we drove out with you. You have found the beauty in the place-wonderful.

Hannah said...

That's what I miss so much about South Dakota. The sunsets lasted forever. And I find the combination of blue sky, white puffy clouds and a golden field of wheat to be very beautiful.

Hopkins said...

I felt this the first time I was I Chicago. Yes, it was a if city. But the canyons of light for sunset lasted for an hour at least. It was stunning.

Emily Hale said...

I had the same thought about Chicago when I visited--that it had great sunrise/sunset light. But I never realized it was related to the flatness.